A thesis is the main idea or claim of an essay, usually stated in one or two sentences in the introduction. When composing a thesis statement, you want to make sure your claim is something arguable, something you can prove. A thesis should also be as clear and specific as possible because it indicates to the reader the focus of the piece of writing. A thesis statement of a literary analysis paper should also include the title(s) and author(s) of the text(s) discussed.

This particular assignment focuses on themes relevant to the texts. Choose for each topic the text that you think most directly connects to the idea. Then rephrase the topic to show the specific message the text sends about that topic. In wording your thesis statement, you may want to use a pattern like this: In [text] [author’s name] illustrates that [theme statement]. Example based on number nine: In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini illustrates that a single moment of someone’s life can have lasting significance.

This may go beyond what the instructor wants, but you may also want to add a writing technique or literary element the author uses to develop the theme. In that case, you could use a pattern like this: In [text] [author’s name] uses [writing technique/literary element] to illustrate that [theme statement]. Example based on number nine: In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses repetition to illustrate that a single moment of someone’s life can have lasting significance.

This may also go beyond what the instructor intended, but many of these topics would lend themselves to a comparison of two or more texts that relate to a common theme. For example, number eight focuses on the “need to make a commitment or renounce a course of action.” Both Hamlet and The Kite Runner feature protagonists who struggle with decisions and regret.

Best of luck on the assignment! 

It appears that your instructor is asking you to think of potential thesis statements for essays you might write in the future about your assigned readings. The thesis statements need to address certain themes. 

For the theme of identity, you might state that in "Boys and Girl" the narrator originally has an almost genderless identity as a prepubescent child. In the story she gradually begins to develop the identity of a "girl" as she reaches puberty, and finds this identity quite restrictive, especially in the way that it constructs her as inferior to her brother Laird. You could next mention that her moment of decision comes when she lets the horse Flora escape, giving Flora, albeit only briefly, the freedom she herself is about to lose when confined to the woman's world of the kitchen.

For Hamlet, his identity is established as a Prince of Denmark and yet he too has to make a choice as to whether he will identify with his father and take revenge or support Claudius. You could argue that the decisive moment for him is that in which he decides to assume the identity of avenger of his father, as that sets the subsequent plot in motion. Another important element of identity in the play is that of false identity, of Hamlet pretending to be mad and the actors pretending to be characters of the play within the play. One could even argue that Claudius is in a sense assuming a false identity of King, based on murder and duplicity.

In Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," Harry's identity rests on his role as writer and adventurer and for him these two identities are closely tied together. This identity is closely related to his sense of gender, in which the female appears almost as a threat to his self-identity and independence, and something he blames for his creative dry spell.